Thursday, June 18, 2020

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No mistake has ever been more fruitful in disastrous consequences than the one we have exposed before.  Take them out yourself.  If man is taught by God alone in the depths of his soul, if he remains purely passive in the appropriation of truth, the Holy Spirit is the only teacher of the Christian through the Scriptures and therefore we must reject the teaching body, the ministry.  of the evangelical discourse.  But this is not all: with another strict conclusion, if there is no apostolic claim to continue in the ages, there is no hierarchical character, nor consequently a hieratic act that transmits it, and we are obliged to erase the hierarchical  ordination by the number of mysteries.
 During the universal teaching, the Church continues the work of the Savior and makes the redemption relevant over the centuries; therefore, there must be priests in charge of the work of the bread class, the Divine Word, bishops also surrounded by a teaching authority, and  shepherds enjoying supernatural privileges.  In Protestant teaching, on the contrary, the spirit of science and wisdom is given to itself immediately and puts heaven in our hearts with its own hands.  Since then, there has been no need for human teachers, nor a mystery to establish them.  What can be the ordination within these principles, despite an inner energy through which God enlightens the minds and delivers them all in the same way?
 Luther took from the Tradition the idea of ​​general priesthood: then he introduced it to his system, having previously formulated it terribly.  He often returns to the issue of priestly ministry, but only in his work with the Auxiliary Brothers does he negotiate it in depth.  Here are the fundamental ideas of this work, which gives us vision to see even further into the depths of Protestantism.
 From the first and all pages, the architect of the Reformation presents the ordination of the Catholic Church as greasing with oil, as a common haircut, as a fraud, which can only produce sinners, charlatans, priests of the devil ... Then he recommends  to expel those who were ordained by the "beast", that is, the Pope as legal shepherds.  To chase them and clear the earth of them.  For all Christians, this is not only an indisputable right but also a strict obligation.  Because every believer has been elevated to the priestly office, and on the basis of that he must preach the word, practice forgiveness of sins, be baptized, perform all the sacraments.  Does the Holy Spirit teach everyone, enlighten all minds, put faith in all hearts?  It gives all souls the certainty of true teaching, but Christians must, for matters of "order", grant only to some the rights of all, and the elect of the people to exercise the work of the holy ministry, since the elders, that is, the simple  older ones attack their hands.

 We cannot, before we go too far, express the thoughts that this paradoxical teaching gave birth to in us.  Humble people, like all heretics, all the insurgents, all the enemies of power, Luther strips man of all his flaws in order to clothe him with all the privileges and all perfections.  He tries to drown in the souls the voice of our own poverty and deep misery.  But if man finds in his spiritual is, all his life, all the truth, if he possesses in himself the antidote to all his misfortunes, how then can we imagine that he needs society?

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